Advent - Making room part 4
Readings for this week December 10 - 16
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – Choosing to Prepare
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:22-24
We all know that Christmas can be an incredibly hectic, busy time, a season of madness unlike any other. There are so many ways in which the people, institutions and society around us can crowd into Christmas, demanding that we do this, buy that and organise this and make that and attend this and so on and so on. December can become so busy these days our crowded Christmas calendar seems to leak backwards into November too, as people seek to get a lot of the season’s busyness out of the way early. Because the Christmas season can be a massive stressful strain on us. If we let it.
Advent is a reminder to prepare ourselves for the coming of the king. But being prepared for something doesn’t just magically happen. We actually have to choose to prepare! We need to make a conscious decision – perhaps many conscious decisions – to choose what to focus on, to prioritise what we will devote our attention and time to; to prepare ourselves in the way that John the Baptist challenged us to. The season of the king requires us to be ready to act justly, live rightly, repent and be ready for God. Soon we’ll meet Simeon and Anna, prepared people, awaiting the king’s coming. They heard God’s promptings, they made themselves ready. When Jesus came, they were all set to meet him. Perhaps in this day and age the counter-cultural, Christian thing to do at this time is to cut back, to simplify, to refocus on the king who makes the season possible in the first place.
Question to Consider
How are you living a life of preparation for the movement of God?
Prayer
Lord God, work in me by the power of your Spirit to prepare myself this Advent season. Speak to me again; renew my strength this season and show me how you want me to prepare. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Ready to Receive
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:25-28
Luke says that Simeon was ‘waiting’ – this, or a similar word, is the one that most translations use to describe him, as this is the main meaning of the Greek word prosdechomenos. But it could also be translated as “ready to receive to oneself”. This rendering transforms the situation slightly and perhaps lets us see something a little different about Simeon. We might see him as a very elderly, long-suffering man, who has spent his entire life waiting for something, never knowing when it was going to happen. We might think of him as obstinately clinging to life, not letting go of his obsession until he has seen the word’s redeemer with his own eyes – and then he can finally smile, let go and die.
But the idea of “ready to receive to oneself” suggests an eagerness, a treasured looking-forward-to, a readiness to welcome. Suddenly, waiting doesn’t mean painful endurance or aching longing, but rather active, excited anticipation, not a grim hanging on but a patient, yet eager, expectation. Simeon was not hanging on until he could finally ‘get out’ of life, but rather was looking forward to what was wanting to ‘break in’ to his reality. He was ready to welcome in whatever was coming; however God was going to move, Simeon was adopting – living – a welcoming stance. It wasn’t always easy. He had waited a long time, through much pain and heartache and questioning. He really may have been wating for, wanting, needing, ‘consolation.’ But rather than focus on the time spent waiting, his eyes were fixed on the one who had been promised.
Question to Consider
What helps us get ready and stay ready? What do Simeon and Anna do in their waiting for God and how can I apply their example to my own life?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, when wating is hard, give me the vision and strength of Simeon so that I can wait with faithful joy and expectation. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – For Jew and Gentile Alike
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:29-32
Israel was a chosen people, selected from out of the nations of the world by God himself to be his holy people. Grace was at the beginning of all things in God’s free, gratuitous, overflowing act of creation. Grace was there in his creation of human beings, made to know him and partner in his work. And grace was there at the beginning of his call to Israel to be his people. It was an act of supreme grace by an always gracious God who offers his grace – has always offered his grace – to everyone. All of humanity is his, all are made in his image, and all are called to return our creator and renew our relationship with him.
Simeon’s song of prayer highlights the nature of the gift of Jesus as one given to all people, Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus’ later interactions with Gentiles (the Roman centurion, the Samaritan woman, etc) might be less numerous than his contact with his fellow countrymen, but his final command to preach the gospel to all the world and make disciples of all nations should dispel any notion of his coming for the Jewish people only. It was always God’s intentions for his chosen people to be alight and example to all the peoples of the world, to embody God’s love and his call in themselves and share both with the world. Simeon’s prayer is a reminder of this. Salvation and reconciliation are for Jew and Gentile both – reconciliation with God and with each other, across every barrier and obstacle we might think to place in the way.
Question to Consider
How is Simeon’s prayer still relevant today? Why is it important for us to remember that Jesus came for Jew and Gentile?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you came for all people. In a world torn apart by hatred and disagreement, help us remind people of your love and the lengths you went to in order that all people could know you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – The Answer or the One who Answers?
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:33-38
Anna and Simeon responded with praise, wonder and thankfulness to this long-awaited answer to their prayers. They responded with exaltation and joy to this baby presented in the Temple. They had no idea what course this baby’s life will take. They did not know of the cross and his death and his resurrection. They knew that their prayers had been answered and the promise delivered on – but what that promise would entail was unknown. They accepted God’s answer to their cries and prayers – and rejoiced.
Anna and Simeon did the opposite of what many of us do when we pray. We are told that specific prayer is good; being specific and focused in our requests shows the seriousness with which we take God and his love for the world. And this is a good thing. But we often also get very focussed on receiving specific answers to our prayers – almost as if we pray with particular responses in mind, only to get annoyed or upset when God’s response falls outside the parameters we think appropriate. Jesus was the fulfilment of Anna’s and Simeon’s hopes and the answer to their prayers – and seeing the new-born baby was enough for them. Their ages meant they would not be around for what followed, would not see how such fulfilment would play out. But that didn’t matter. Praising the God who had heard their prayers was more important than taking issue with the time it took him to answer or the way he did so. Anna and Simeon show us that it is better to focus on the one who answers than the answers themselves.
Question to Consider
How can I tell the difference between being led by the Holy Spirit and being led by my own desires for answered prayer?
Prayer
Almighty Father, help me not be led astray by the answers and responses that I think I want from you, but show me how to pray into your will for my life rather than my wishes for my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – For All
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:39-40
If we were to look back over the first few chapters of the gospel of Luke, we would notice something seemingly quite insignificant but actually quite profound. In the story that has been related so far, who have been the people involved up to this point? The people who have featured in the story up until now have been ordinary people. Zechariah and Elizabeth have been introduced, an older couple, he a priest in the division of Abijah, she descended from Aaron, and childless due to an inability to conceive. At the other end of the spectrum we have met Mary, a very young bride-to-be, who finds herself miraculously pregnant. Another group mentioned were the shepherds, out in the countryside tending their flocks. And we have encountered Anna and Simeon, who have been waiting expectantly for a very long time for Israel’s saviour to come.
Young, old, priests, shepherds, those of means and those without, those new to the story, those who have been waiting a long time. God involves everyone in his story because his story is for everyone. Not only are all types of people included in the story itself, but all people are invited to be the beneficiaries of the story too. The saviour in the manger came for all people; those who gathered around the new born child, those in the Temple for the dedication, all are representatives of the full breadth of humanity that God welcomes back to him through the sending of his son. No one is left out. All are invited. God makes room for everyone.
Question to Consider
Who are the people in your life that God has called you to? Who are the people beyond your usual comfort zone that he is calling you to?
Prayer
Gracious God, you are God for all. There is no limit to your love. No one is left out of your embrace; you involve all people in your story, in your redemptive love. May we show such love in all we do. Amen.